Murphy takes aim at U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings

Ana Radelat, CTMIRROR.COM

Updated
3:48 pm EST, Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to the press after receiving a briefing from U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on developments in Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill. Murphy is one of six Democratic U.S. senators trying to press the publication into taking better account of a school’s diversity in the methodology it uses to rank the nation’s universities and colleges. less

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to the press after receiving a briefing from U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on developments in Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill. Murphy ... more

Photo: Zach Gibson / Getty Images

Photo: Zach Gibson / Getty Images

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to the press after receiving a briefing from U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on developments in Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill. Murphy is one of six Democratic U.S. senators trying to press the publication into taking better account of a school’s diversity in the methodology it uses to rank the nation’s universities and colleges. less

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to the press after receiving a briefing from U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on developments in Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill. Murphy ... more

Photo: Zach Gibson / Getty Images

Murphy takes aim at U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings

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Washington - Sen. Chris Murphy is tussling with U.S. News and World Report over the publication’s popular college rankings, arguing that enrollment of low-income and minority students are not given enough weight.

The magazine responded late Tuesday, saying it did not have the data to do what Murphy - and other Democratic senators - are suggesting.

Murphy is one of six Democratic U.S. senators trying to press the publication into taking better account of a school’s diversity in the methodology it uses to rank the nation’s universities and colleges.

In a letter sent to magazine editor Brian Kelly this week, the senators said the magazine’s consideration of the number of students with Pell grants — federal tuition grants for low-income students — when it ranks colleges is not enough.

“U.S. News may claim that it now adequately addresses economic diversity by adjusting its new Pell metrics by the share of the student body receiving such grants,” the senators wrote. “But this adjustment still leaves in the background the question of how widely schools open their doors to such students. Moreover, it fails to consider the importance of diversity, inclusion, and representation in its own right.”

The senators also said the approach U.S. News and World Report takes to rank colleges “prioritizes prestige and exacerbates America’s deeply ingrained and racialized wealth disparities.”

U.S. News includes expert opinions of the quality of a school, faculty resources, student excellence, spending on students and alumni donations in its methodology.

Murphy and the other senators object that alumni donations are given a weight of 5 percent, while admission of Pell grant students is only weighed 2.5 percent and the graduation rate of those students 2.5 percent in the methodology that establishes the yearly rankings.

“U.S. News’s methodology reflects an assumption that a college’s success in fundraising matters to its quality as much as its success in serving students from every walk of American life. We believe judgments like that are indefensible,” the senators wrote.

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